The City of Amber
by Quill Cipher
Summary: Quill has been wanting to explore outside Amber and the Forest all her life. But when something happens that makes her not able to?


A/N

Hello there. I just finished reading The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau. I think it was awesome. I NEED to read the sequels. The City of Ember inspired me. This is my version. This does not have to do with Gravity Falls! I just wanted to use the name. Should I continue? Read and review!

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The City of Amber

By: Quill Cipher

Chapter 1: The City

Quill Cipher was a normal girl in the city of Amber. The city of Amber was normal, at least that's what everyone in the city said. The city was surrounded with tall walls, and there were a few doors. The doors opened at a certain time, in a pattern, so no one but the Hunters, Explorers, and Wood Choppers could go out. Amber was surrounded by a forest with tall, green trees. There were almost no animals, except for squirrels, rabbits, and birds. No one knew what was past the Forest, as people who went out never returned.

Quill wanted to explore past the Forest. She was adventurous, at least her mother said so. "My little adventurer." she called her. Quill had a normal family, a mom, a dad, and a little brother named Milo. Quill was 12, Milo was 7, and their mom and dad were in their 30s. Late at night, Quill snuck out to explore the town. The town was so big, and nobody ever made a map. Quill was making one. She already had half of Amber covered. Quill was also the one to had to get up early and get the week's food for her family.

Amber gave out food to every house for one week, every week. Amber, as said earlier, had no animals like cows or chickens or horses. They didn't have electricity, either. They didn't have computers, or cell phones, or TVs. Amber didn't think they were poor, as no one ever came into Amber. Ever. Enough about Amber. Let's see what Quill is doing.

Quill was skipping to the Market to get that week's food, her backpack hanging from one shoulder. Inside her backpack was a notebook, some pencils, and some crayons. She also had a book about Amber she snuck out of the storehouse. "Urgh." she murmured. She had come about one minute late. There was a huge line now. Twenty minutes later, she unzipped her bag to put the food inside. A tall man with a black shirt gave her the week's food, and she skipped off to her house, halfway across town. Quill had only been up to the storehouse, she never went farther than that. There were no children on the east side of town, only her and Milo. She took a shortcut and arrived at home. "Hi Quill! What'd you get?" Milo said, running up to her. He was reading a book called 'Fables' from school.

"Nothing special." Quill said, a smirk on her face. Milo whined and Quill pulled out eight pudding cups. "YAYAYAYAYAY!" Milo yelled, jumped all over the house. Quill put everything in the cabinet, and put her backpack away in her room. Quill's house had only one floor and an attic. Quill's room was the attic, and she liked to look out the big window to see all of Amber. The school was right near the town square, and the town square was in the middle of Amber. There was a big tree, almost as tall as the school, which was two stories high. The tree was planted when Amber was first built.

In Quill's room was a pile of things she had collected over her years in Amber. Things like notebooks, pencils, crayons, cloth, seeds, anything. In another pile was things she would trade for rarer things. Explorers would find some things in the Forest or sometimes the edge of town, and bring it back at the end of the month. In a corner was her bed, and a shelf with some randoms objects, including a few books. In another corner was a pile of wood planks and screws, for building a platform on the edge of her window. She wanted to sit there and look at all of Amber, drawing the sky and working on her map.

Today was September 30th, the day Explorers would gather in the town square to trade. Quill packed her backpack with things and walked downstairs to Milo's room. "Anything you want to trade, Mi?" Quill yelled. Milo's muffled yell of "Coming!" came through the walls, and Milo came in. He grabbed a shirt, a foam building block, and a colored pencil, and put it in Quill's bag. "You sure have rare stuff." Quill laughed. She got a piece of construction paper from her mom and set off with Milo to the town square. There were three carts filled with piles of objects on sides of the square. Milo yelled "Look!" at about everything. Quill took his hand and walked over to a man selling a screwdriver. "How about a piece of construction paper for that screwdriver?" Quill asked. The man nodded and they traded.

They wandered around for another hour until there were only a few people left. They walked to every cart to get the leftovers, which were free as no one wanted them. They left with two wood planks, a screwdriver, some screws, a roll of tape, some colored pencils, and a big toy car for Milo. They also got some cloth. They got home at about five o' clock. Their mom cooked up some macaroni and they ate their dinner, talking about the trading, school, and other things.

"So, how's dinner?" Their mom asked. They both said "Good." and nodded. Quill went up to her room ten minutes later and counted her items. She read Milo's 'Fables' book and copied some of it down in one of her notebooks. Later that night, at about six o' clock, Quill opened her window. Everyone's lights were off. Amber's residents fell asleep early, as they worked all day. She had build a small ladder out of small wood planks to reach the roof of her house. She climbed up with her notebook and pencil and wrote:

_Sep. 30_

_ Doors open:_

_ Doors close:_

_ People enter:_

She had brought up an old watch she got from trading one day. As the doors opened and closed, she wrote the time. Sometime around seven, a man in a red shirt with green stripes went out of a door nearby. It was a Wood Chopper. She could tell by the axe in his hands. Two hours later, she climbed back down and put her notebook away. She snuck downstairs and peeked into Milo's room. She heard shuffling. "Milo?" Quill whispered. Milo sighed. "I was reading my Fables book." Quill nodded and went upstairs. She climbed into her bed and fell asleep a few minutes later.


End file.
